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Has Microsoft Gone Nuts?

mobileopportunity.blogspot.co.uk

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Re: Has Microsoft Gone Nuts?

#21

Post by Joeri »

tptacek wrote: post #6

Microsoft isn't nuts. They simply missed mobile. Microsoft almost missed the Internet, and retained some of their dominance only after decisive top-down action and investment. By the time Microsoft understood what was happening in mobile, it was too late. The fiasco was compounded by Ballmer's indecisive reaction, but it was already set in motion. Anything Microsoft does with mobile, perhaps short of something that l…

Microsoft / nokia are still likely to exceed iOS phone market share globally within two years as they are growing much faster. Nokia has been growing the market at the low end where there is no iOS and where android is a poor experience (and Windows Phone surprisingly is quite good). The US market is locked into high end phones due to the carrier subsidy model, but in the rest of the world the story is very different.

Microsoft's current moves are about the tablet space. They think the dominant device form factor will be tablets, not laptops, so they're trying to reposition windows to be a tablet-friendly OS, but have the problem that people don't care about win32 on a tablet, but they do want apps and those apps must be designed for mobile. A lot of what they're doing makes sense from the perspective of wanting to be a player in the tablet space : the unified OS and app store strategy which they are working on now, windows 8, windows rt, surface, the Nokia buyout, and so on.

Re: Has Microsoft Gone Nuts?

#22

Post by nknighthb »

pantalaimon wrote: post #12
drzaiusapelord wrote: post #3

How is this nuts? These are all smart moves as the personal pc landscape is changing and moving toward mobile devices. Making your desktop users happy with ye olde start menu and giving away WP are very smart moves. MS still will make a lot of money of its patent portfolio via android and its own WP app store. Selling an OS is an outdated concept and everyone knows it.

Why do people repeat saying that "the personal pc landscape is […] moving toward mobile devices"? I don't know anyone who stopped using their PC just because they got a tablet or smartphone. Sure there is a decline in sales for PCs because the market is saturated and for the most people, unless they are gamers, their 5 year old computer will do just fine. Yet people keep shouting that the days of the desktop computer…

> I don't know anyone who stopped using their PC just because they got a tablet or smartphone.

Sounds like a highly biased sample set. I know several people who barely touch their PCs since getting a tablet, and there are an increasing number of children for whom PCs are just these weird things they see in school that, for some unfathomable reason, don't do anything when you touch the screen.

There already aren't a lot of reasons left for non-techies to not stick to tablets. Those reasons will continue to recede.

Re: Has Microsoft Gone Nuts?

#23

Post by winslow »

Would Microsoft benefit from Nokia building an Android phone to help their argument in the EU over the android patent? They could argue that they are indeed using the patent in their own android devices and thus have a compelling argument to keep receiving royalties from other manufactures.

Re: Has Microsoft Gone Nuts?

#24

Post by Jemaclus »

mcormier wrote: post #13
Jemaclus wrote: post #9

Microsoft isn't nuts, but black text on dark gray background is... yikes.

Try reloading the page. The server is taking a beating because this article has gone viral. There is a white background if the site loads properly.

I tried a couple of times, so I wouldn't make a dumb comment, but it never did show up... I may stand corrected, assuming a white background ever actually loads. :)

Re: Has Microsoft Gone Nuts?

#25

Post by steven2012 »

Microsoft should split up the company into smaller ones. This is something that should have happened with the anti-trust case a decade ago, but unfortunately it didn't happen. I said to myself at the time, it would have been the best thing for the software industry if we saw Microsoft split up into an OS company and an applications company.

Now, I think they should split off Windows, Applications, X-box, and Mobile. There are a lot of very smart people at Microsoft still, but they are all stymied with the culture of everything having to center around Windows. X-box was best when it didn't have Windows shoved down it's throat and the same goes for Mobile. Now, Windows is having Mobile shoved down its throat by an increasingly desperate and frenetic management that is drowning in incompetence, and they're taking everyone down around them.

What they need to do is just admit that the industry is changing on too many fronts too quickly, and this idea of having horizontal integration across multiple products is unfeasible. Having integration of Internet Explorer into Windows, or the same with Office worked. But they keep going back to the same well too many times. They need to let each market grow organically, and let their good PMs and engineers make the best products they can, not the best products that will keep selling Windows.

Re: Has Microsoft Gone Nuts?

#26

Post by nine_k »

shin_lao wrote: post #17
tptacek wrote: post #6

Microsoft isn't nuts. They simply missed mobile. Microsoft almost missed the Internet, and retained some of their dominance only after decisive top-down action and investment. By the time Microsoft understood what was happening in mobile, it was too late. The fiasco was compounded by Ballmer's indecisive reaction, but it was already set in motion. Anything Microsoft does with mobile, perhaps short of something that l…

I think you are underestimating the quality of Windows Phone devices. We'll see what I happens, but I wouldn't write Microsoft off the mobile market yet. Edit: market share is around 10% in five European countries according to this: http://www.kantarworldpanel.com/global/News/news-articles/Ap...

While WM7 may be quite fine (I heard this multiple times from real users), it would take long time and much effort to acquire enough mindshare.

What WM devices lack is a killer feature. They are just another fine smartphone line, unfortunately incompatible with software for market leaders, Android and iOS.

With this regard, Jolla looks about as good, and it runs Android apps, too.

Re: Has Microsoft Gone Nuts?

#27

Post by badman_ting »

shin_lao wrote: post #17
tptacek wrote: post #6

Microsoft isn't nuts. They simply missed mobile. Microsoft almost missed the Internet, and retained some of their dominance only after decisive top-down action and investment. By the time Microsoft understood what was happening in mobile, it was too late. The fiasco was compounded by Ballmer's indecisive reaction, but it was already set in motion. Anything Microsoft does with mobile, perhaps short of something that l…

I think you are underestimating the quality of Windows Phone devices. We'll see what I happens, but I wouldn't write Microsoft off the mobile market yet. Edit: market share is around 10% in five European countries according to this: http://www.kantarworldpanel.com/global/News/news-articles/Ap...

I am sure they are very nice, but quality is not a differentiator in that market. It's part of the entrance fee.

Microsoft has crazy amounts of money and influence, so we can all say "don't count them out yet". The point is they are huge and have no power in the most important market in the industry.

Re: Has Microsoft Gone Nuts?

#28

Post by baruch »

cylinder wrote: post #18
tptacek wrote: post #6

Microsoft isn't nuts. They simply missed mobile. Microsoft almost missed the Internet, and retained some of their dominance only after decisive top-down action and investment. By the time Microsoft understood what was happening in mobile, it was too late. The fiasco was compounded by Ballmer's indecisive reaction, but it was already set in motion. Anything Microsoft does with mobile, perhaps short of something that l…

I think Surface Pro is an excellent device for enterprise, much better than the iPad. Problem with Microsoft is always their marketing and branding. They're making a huge push for consumers when they should instead be doing enterprise and education.

That would be rather hilarious given that they were always touted as better marketers than anyone else in the market. At least that was the blame in every community I was involved in (OS/2 & Linux).

Re: Has Microsoft Gone Nuts?

#29

Post by vertex-four »

pantalaimon wrote: post #12
drzaiusapelord wrote: post #3

How is this nuts? These are all smart moves as the personal pc landscape is changing and moving toward mobile devices. Making your desktop users happy with ye olde start menu and giving away WP are very smart moves. MS still will make a lot of money of its patent portfolio via android and its own WP app store. Selling an OS is an outdated concept and everyone knows it.

Why do people repeat saying that "the personal pc landscape is […] moving toward mobile devices"? I don't know anyone who stopped using their PC just because they got a tablet or smartphone. Sure there is a decline in sales for PCs because the market is saturated and for the most people, unless they are gamers, their 5 year old computer will do just fine. Yet people keep shouting that the days of the desktop computer…

My dad hasn't touched his laptop in well over a year, since getting his iPhone and iPad. I know several other people who use tablets and don't even own computers.

Re: Has Microsoft Gone Nuts?

#30

Post by badman_ting »

pantalaimon wrote: post #12
drzaiusapelord wrote: post #3

How is this nuts? These are all smart moves as the personal pc landscape is changing and moving toward mobile devices. Making your desktop users happy with ye olde start menu and giving away WP are very smart moves. MS still will make a lot of money of its patent portfolio via android and its own WP app store. Selling an OS is an outdated concept and everyone knows it.

Why do people repeat saying that "the personal pc landscape is […] moving toward mobile devices"? I don't know anyone who stopped using their PC just because they got a tablet or smartphone. Sure there is a decline in sales for PCs because the market is saturated and for the most people, unless they are gamers, their 5 year old computer will do just fine. Yet people keep shouting that the days of the desktop computer…

Do you know what a growth market is? And why that might be important to a business, particularly a gigantic one?

Jeez. Sorry for the tone but the continued head-in-the-sand attitude towards MS is driving me batty.

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